Our Travels in Madrid and Toledo

    Wow, I feel like it's been awhile since I've done one of these. Anyway, without further aidue, here is the post about our trip to Madrid...

Day 1 - Thursday (Thanksgiving):
   When we got to Frankfurt, we were early, so walked around and looked for something to eat. Nothing looked good to Tyler, so we decided to go to our gate and eat around there, only problem was that out flight didn't have a gate. Hmmm, that's suspicious. So, we asked around, and we were told what terminal and gate it should be. Once we got to the area, we went and ate at McDonalds. Normally, I would rather not have McDonalds, but in Germany, they have these holiday sandwiches, and oh man, let me tell you, they're SO GOOD! I died. After lunch, we went to the gate our flight was supposedly out of, and waited. Tyler and I started to freak out a little because, while our flight was on all the info boards, there was no gate assigned to it. Then, it got to be boarding time...still no gate. WHAT?! Then, about the time we were supposed to take-off, we had a gate! We checked in and waited in the waiting area. Then, in true Frankfurt Airport fashion, we were driven by bus to the plane. Finally we were on the plane! Almost an hour late...ugh.
    Once we landed in Madrid, we met Tyler's cousin Jenna at the airport train station, and made our way to the city center. Once we were there, we then went to meet up with the woman who's apartment we rented for the long weekend via airbnb.com. The lady was so nice, and the apartment was so cute and clean!Thanks Airbnb :) haha.
    After we all chatted and got settled, we walked around Madrid. Thank goodness it was a lot warmer there! haha. We ended the evening at a tapas bar and, of course, had to get ice cream afterwards. Mmmmm.

Day 2 - Friday:
    On Friday, we got up and ate breakfast at this cute little cafe  and got churros with chocolate to dip them in. No, not like the ones you get at Disneyland, but they're similar and delicious. Once we were done, we then made our way on a "guided walk" that would lead us to the Palace. Now, when I say "guided walk," I don't mean those tours you pay for, I mean one that was in our Eyewhiteness Travel Book on Madrid. Man, I love those books. Such great tour guides. Below are some of the sites we saw on our walk:

Puerta de Toledo

Cathedral of Madrid. So cool. The Crypt is so beautiful.

The awesome door of the Cathedral

Palacio Real

The walk ended at this cool Egyptian monument. Has a GREAT view of the city.

    After going on our walk, seeing the Palace, and going to a cool park, we decided to get some lunch. So, we consulted the book. You know what we all were craving? Mexican food, and sure enough, there are some great Mexican food restaurants in Spain. I know what you're thinking, you go all the way to Spain JUST to ear Mexican food? Why aren't you eating the Spanish food? Ok, here's the thing...Jenna lives in Spain, so she has to deal with their bland food all the time. Tyler and I, well, we just miss Mexican food. Plus, German Mexican restaurants are awful (sorry Germans) and Spanish food, well, some of it is good, but I can see it getting old fast. Oh yeah, I was also the only one out of us all that likes seafood, so that limited their choices at many places. Anyway, the Mexican food was AMAZING. We were just so excited about it, we had the waiter take our picture :D
    After our wonderful Mexican food, we were really tired, so decided to go back to the apartment for a little siesta. What started off as all of us reading and watching tv, turned into a couple hour nap! haha. I guess we all needed it, huh? So, by about 10, we make our way out to walk around and eventually get dinner. I felt like a true Spaniard!

Madrid is so pretty at night! :)

Puerta de Alcala

Bank of Madrid

Day 3 - Saturday:
    On Saturday, we made our way via train to Toledo. There are really no words to describe how cool this city is, so I'm just going to put some pictures and captions. :)

The Fort of Toledo

Such a cool building! Look at all the detail.

El Greco's house. There were even some of his paintings! Epic.

View from El Greco's house.

A church with one of El Greco's paintings in it. Wasn't allowed to take a picture of the painting, but I thought the church itself was pretty cool. Love the arches.

Such a cool cathedral spire

All of us in front of the Cathedral

Bridge of Toledo

Toledo is so pretty, don't you think?

    After a full day in Toledo, which included walking around, an interesting restaurant, a horrible museum, cool houses and churches, we made our way back to the train station. Once we got back to our apartment, we quickly changed and made our way to our dinner and Flamenco show! The dinner was delicious and the flamenco was amazing, even Tyler enjoyed it. I'm so excited that I got to see a flamenco show in Spain!

Day 4 - Sunday:
    Our final day in Spain was museum day. We went to both Reina Sofia and the Prado. Reina Sofia was ok...I'm not really one for modern art (Picasso is about as modern as I can go), so, needless to say, it was not my favorite, but hey, it was free. The Prado on the other hand, I loved! I mean, don't get me wrong, the religious art can get old, but I really like Spanish art and artists.
    For lunch, we wanted to a Cuban restaurant, but because of some random protests, it was hard to get the restaurant. Luckily, we found a way to get there, and I'm glad we did! It was delicious!
    Afterwards, we made our way back to the apartment to pack and cleaned up the apartment a little bit. Then, we made our way to the metro to get to the airport. Tyler thought we were cutting it close for our flight, and I remembered it being later. Just to let you know, I was right :p. Haha. I was sad to leave Spain, but happy to be going home. Unfortunately for us, we didn't get home until about 1:20 am, and Tyler had to be at work at 6am. Yikes! Worth it? Yes. :D